


No lonelier man in the world

by wefewwehappyfew



Category: 14th Century CE RPF, 15th Century CE RPF
Genre: F/M, Henry and Mary give me the feels, Lancastrian appreciation, Mentions of various other characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 05:07:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16847713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wefewwehappyfew/pseuds/wefewwehappyfew
Summary: Henry Bolingbroke, now Henry IV of England, remembers.





	No lonelier man in the world

_Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.  
_

_(Percy Byshe Shelley “To a Skylark”)_

There is no lonelier man in the world than a king.

That was something that Henry Bolingbroke, the eldest son of John de Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, did not understand until he was crowned as Henry IV of England.

No matter what his cousin, the deposed King Richard II, told him. No matter the state of despair he had reduced himself to in his last moments.

_And yet he was every bit a king._

No matter his father’s words.

_My dear son, politics are something rather particular. They make you marry someone you despise, make your best friends your sworn enemies, and make you sleep with a dagger under the pillow, just in case._

Curious words from someone who ambitioned so much he married a woman he never loved and was ready to wage war just to become King of Castile.

Henry wondered what would his father think of him. He would probably be proud, his son had triumphed where he had failed, and the throne of England was his now. Above Richard, above the child of Lionel of Antwerp. The house of Gaunt-Lancaster had finally triumphed.

But he also wondered what _she_ would think of him.

His Mary, his sweet Mary who fretted at the idea of him joining the rebellions against Richard. Who had loved him even if she should have hated him and his father.

( _And he would forever love her for that_.)

The one who brought peace to his mind was there no longer. It had been almost ten years. He had a new wife. Joan was a brave soul that would dare to face him even when his son would not. A good wife and queen and an excellent mother to the children that had lost theirs.

( _No matter if they spent more time arguing than what not._ )

But he could not help but wonder how things would be if Mary were still alive. Would she hate him now, truly? Would she side with their children as Joan does or would she understand him better?

It was not fair.

He would give the Crown, he would give everything to have her back there with him and end with this feeling of loneliness.

Yet little did he know that, in a certain way, she never left him. She was always by his side. Even if he could not see her, or feel her touch.

( _Sometimes he feels it, like a caress on his cheek or his hand being squeezed in the very same way she used to do it when he needed to calm down. But it is just his imagination, he knows it._ )

It was, after all, what Mary asked herself the very moment she left this world. And she understood she would not be at peace knowing everything that would happen to her Henry and to her children.

She loved them all 

And she would protect them as best as she could.

Even if her Henry, the man that rules now the destinies of the country, will never know she is there.

**Author's Note:**

> \- So yep this is the start on a series about the Lancastrian kings of England because I believe they do not get enough appreciation (AND THEY ARE MY BABIES *ahem*). There will also be fics dedicated to Henry V and Henry VI.(and probably one dedicated to Edward of Lancaster who is my precious baby Prince of Wales)
> 
> \- Henry IV/Mary de Bohun= TOTAL OTP. Basically, for those who do not know, Mary was probs the richest heiress in the whole of England. After her father’s death, she was taken by her sister and her husband, Thomas of Woodstock, who seeked to control her inheritance. But enter in John de Gaunt who decides that nope the monies are not for his brother, and kidnaps Mary to marry her to his eldest son Henry. The marriage, which was supposed to be purely political and not be consummated until Mary turned 16, was consummated almost instantly (with Mary being 13 and Henry 14), and the fact that she gave him seven children (six of which survived to adulthood) and he did not remarry until 9 years after her death, do tell, IMHO, of a pretty loving marriage. (yes he had the rebellion business but you understand me)
> 
> \- So yes, the ghost thing is an invention, but it made sense to me, considering these two. And after all, those who love us never truly leave us, right?
> 
> \- Also Joan of Navarre was an HBIC. End of the story.


End file.
